Understanding the Govflo request lifecycle

Every request moves through a series of statuses. Knowing the shape of that path tells you where any request is, what can happen next, and who decided that.

The path

A starter configuration looks like this:

New → In Progress → Awaiting Requester Response or Awaiting Payment → Resolved → Closed or Denied

Your agency's statuses, the moves allowed between them, and any status you add are all configured in Settings, so yours may differ substantially. Two things hold whatever the names are.

Every move is allowed until your agency restricts it

Govflo lets a request move from any status to any other. The only move it never offers is a status to itself.

Your agency narrows that. On the transitions grid under Settings, then Workflows, then Statuses, an administrator unticks the moves that should not be available. A lifecycle that only runs forward is a choice your agency has made, not a rule the product enforces.

That is why the dropdown on a request can show fewer options than the full status list. It is offering the moves your agency has left open from where the request is now. If what you want is missing, either an administrator has restricted it or the status does not exist yet.

A closed request can come back

Closing a request does not seal it. A closed request can be moved to an open status again, and a requester's reply can reopen it on its own.

When that happens the original deadline is not revived, because you met it. The resolution clock takes a fresh date from your agency's reopen window, set under Settings, then Workflows, then SLA Policies. You can change that date afterwards if the work genuinely needs longer.

Status and the clock

Some statuses pause the deadline and some do not, and your agency decides which. The pattern is that a status meaning "we are waiting on the requester" pauses the clock, because the delay is not the agency's.

This is why an approximate status is a real problem rather than untidiness. The queue filters on status and the clock reads it, so a request parked in a status that is merely close produces an inaccurate deadline.

Where the work happens

The status says where a request is. The work itself happens on the request's tabs: the correspondence, the internal notes, the documents, the approvals, and the log of everything that has happened.